


not today

by snufkinkin



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Based on a Twenty One Pilots Song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 10:21:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19810303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snufkinkin/pseuds/snufkinkin
Summary: songfic.kind of an au where tyler and josh live in the same apartment complex?meant to be platonic joshler but you can take it however you want!first published fanfiction. be kind lol[older work; I don't ship or write for this ship anymore but im still going to keep it up since some people seemed to like it.]





	not today

**Author's Note:**

> so, like said, first fanfic. grammar/spelling checks were made kind of hastily + this was written very late in the night so be prepared.  
> lowecase is intended.

tyler had been thinking for some time. he didn't know why, but he felt... disassociated from everyone else. like he would've just been better off staying in the exact room he was born in. he'd shut himself from the outside, but occasionally, he would find himself looking out his window to all the people passing by. they were completely oblivious to his existence, happy without him. who was he to try and transform the truth? 

\----

whenever tyler found even the smallest bit of confidence in talking to other people, he tried to sound happy. more often not, his words were a contradicton of that. it was okay though. maybe people got how he was feeling. or maybe he came across as weird. it was probably the latter.

\----

tyler was standing in front of his apartment door, staring at the lock as if he thought it would open if he focused hard enough. then he heard a voice.

“uh, are you okay?” it said, sounding weirded out. what a surprise.

tyler didn't look at whoever it was. he'd been staring at the lock for so long he didn't even know if he was just imagining the voice.

a beat. 

“mhm,” he finally mumbled. what a dignified response.

“... okay?” the voice said after a pause, sounding even more weirded out than before. “are you like, waiting for someone to open the door, or...” 

tyler still didn't look up. he shook his head slightly and answered, “this is my apartment. i'm locked out.” 

“oh.” 

another beat.

the voice still sounded kind of wary as it followed up by saying, “that still doesn't explain why you're looking at your door like it'll open magically, you know.” 

at this he finally looked up. it wasn't his imagination after all, he quickly realized, as he saw a man with blue hair staring at him, looking a bit amused. tyler noticed he had a tattoo reaching down his right arm.

“sick tattoo, dude,” he said. the man glanced at his arm before smiling a bit and saying, “thanks.” 

they stood there for a second before the man said, “you never answered me, you know.” 

“answered what? you never asked anything.”

“oh come on, you know what i meant.”

tyler sighed a little and slid down to sit on the floor. he stayed quiet for a while, fully expecting the man to take his leave after this weird-ass encounter. he was proven wrong when he felt the guy sliding down to sit with him. he decided to answer.

“i don’t know what to do,” he said.

“about being locked in? i mean, you could always just go and ask the landlady for a spare key, she's pretty cool,” josh replied.

he smiled a bit at that. happy. he was happy. isn't kind of sad that you have to remind yourself that you're happy? but he was happy.

“i didn't mean just that,” he started, keeping the light smile on his face. “i mean in general. I don't know what to do with my life. I don't know what to do to finally get a decent job. I don't know what to do to stop disappointing everyone.” he finished talking, leaving josh quiet, probably to recollect his thoughts. this dude sat down on a grimy apartment block floor and went full-on existential crisis on him. what was the correct reaction to that? 

he was quiet for a few minutes before he spoke up.

“dude, how old even are you? i mean, you look like you're the same age as me. you have more than enough time to accomplish stuff. besides, disappointing your parents? this life you're living? it's yours. dont let other people rule what you wanna do, whatever that might be.” 

“you are out of my mind, you know that?” tyler laughed, not at the guy or anything, he was just genuinely surprised. “you waste all this time talking to some random guy who's having a breakdown. but i don't think you're really seeing my side.”

“you're right. but maybe i can,” the man smiled. a real, genuine smile. tyler really hadn't seen that kind of smile directed towards him in a long time. “i'm josh.” he put his arm out to shake tyler's hand.

he looked at it for a second before asking, “you want to shake my hand?” at this josh looked confused and he pulled his hand back slowly. “why are you so surprised?” 

tyler shrugged. “i just don't usually get this far in conversation. people normally walk away like they're in a hurry.”

“that's... kind of sad, don't you think?” josh mused out loud. tyler thought about that for a second. he was used to it, but he couldn't deny that it was a bit sad.

“yeah, a little,” he admitted. he laughed despite the subject at hand. “whats the time?” he asked josh.

“uh, 5:32,” he replied after digging out his phone from his back pocket. “damn, we've been here a while.”

tyler stood up and nodded in agreement. “i should get that spare key,” he said as josh was also getting up. josh cleared his throat. “yeah.”

as tyler was walking down the stairs to the lobby, he reminded himself to answer this time.

"i'm tyler, by the way,” he called after josh, who was in the process of opening his door. he looked back at tyler, smiled and said, “cool,” before stepping into his apartment and closing the door behind him. this left tyler alone in the middle of the stairwell, still looking up at josh's door. a few seconds later, he continued down the stairs.

\----

about a month passed after the stairway incident with josh. tyler really thought their conversation was going to be a one time thing, but as it turns out, they started talking more. soon enough, they had each other's phone numbers.

it was odd for tyler to admit, but he found that he'd become dependent on josh, to some extent. could you blame him though? he'd went years without an actual friendship, without a person that tolerated him despite him being less than normal.

so even if tyler still didn't know what to do with his life, and even if he didn't know how he was going to tolerate the customers at his job at wendy's, and even if he didn't know how to convince his family he wasn't an absolute failure, he had josh. and for the most part, that was good enough. even a text from him was bound to make the day better.

that was for the most part. today though, tyler called in sick. just like yesterday.

he wasn't sick, at least not physically. something was keeping him from leaving his bed though. he couldn't be bothered to eat or drink. he couldn't be bothered to shower or clean up his apartment. and he definitely couldn't be bothered to look at all the unread messages he had from josh. 

you see, the two had opened up to each other fairly quickly after they first met. they both had a few problems. so, they agreed on sending each other a confirmation that they're okay every day. if something was wrong, they'd know. 

tyler desperately wanted to send the text to josh, to say that he's okay, to say that he shouldn't worry, and yet he couldn't. he just laid there, staring at the ceiling, occasionally looking at his desk clock, watching the time slowly tick by. 

and it was like that for the majority of the day.

until josh decided to be his freaking guardian angel and came knocking on his door somewhere around 5 pm. he was honestly kind of surprised in himself when he sat up and begrudgingly made his way to the door, wrapped in his blanket. if it was anyone else than josh, he doubted he would've even tried to get up.

tyler quickly glanced at himself in the mirror. he had hair sticking out in every direction and visibly dark bags under his eyes. he opened the door anyways.

he peeked out of the door after opening it the tiniest bit, making sure that it really was josh. after he deduced that yes, he had not been imagining his friend's voice, he opened the door fully and welcomed josh in. “hey,” he said hoarsely. damn, he really needed some water.

“you look horrible. no offense,” he said after looking at tyler for a couple seconds. tyler chuckled a bit and responded, “trust me, i know.”

josh walked deeper into tyler's apartment and frowned. it was dark due to the curtains being drawn completely shut, but with the light that still shone through, he could see that the place was a mess. not a complete mess, but he could clearly see that it hadn't been taken care of for a couple days. it seemed that the most tyler had eaten or drank was half a bag of chips and a few cans of redbull. needless to say, not a very rich diet.

“don't worry about this, josh. it's just one of those things, you know?” tyler tried to smile. keyword, tried. it came out looking more like a grimace. “i just gotta get through this and it'll be fine. you can go now. really. i'll be ok.”

it honestly seemed like tyler was trying to convince himself more than josh. he didn't succeed. josh looked at tyler again.

“nope, not today, not ever,” he said while opening the curtains and window, revealing the people walking on the streets and cars driving by. the sun was setting, creating a beautiful gradient of colors in the sky. josh stood by the window while tyler was sat on the bed, adjusting to the sunlight that was now shining into the his bedroom. “i'm your friend, tyler. it's basically my job to care and worry about you.”

tyler opened his mouth to respond, but josh cut him off. “seriously. you're not a burden or anything. i'm here whenever stuff gets overwhelming, okay?”

“i guess there's no choice,” tyler decided and chuckled a bit again. “thanks josh. i really appreciate it.” josh smiled at that.

“no problem.”

“though i have to say. tearing down my curtains just like that is kind of rude,” tyler teased. josh playfully rolled his eyes at that.

“come on, what's rude is you ignoring my messages for two days straight,” josh said. admittedly, it wasn't meant to come off so harsh. josh only realized what he said right after he did it. his eyes widened. “i mean, i-” 

tyler quickly interrupted josh with a cheeky smile, “don't test me, josh. just 'cause i play the piano doesn't mean i can't take you down,” he said, clearly signaling to josh that he thankfully hadn't taken any offense. he smiled and sat down with tyler, looking outside at the streets.

it was quiet for a while, before the words, “i'm really sorry though,” made their way out of tyler's mouth. he looked over at josh, the playful smile now completely wiped off his face and instead replaced with a frown. looking down, he felt tears build up in his eyes.

josh was now looking at tyler with a worried expression. “hey," josh said sternly. tyler turned his head to look at josh.

“don't apologize. it's really bad right now, i get it. you'll make it through though, right?” josh reassured him. tyler smiled a little.

“yeah.” he stayed quiet for a while again, before stating, “i'm really out of my mind, aren't i? i must not be seeing things right, trying to run from you and all.”

“it's a good thing im so stubborn then,” josh grinned and as tyler smiled back, for once, he felt that his smile was genuine. 

\----

**Author's Note:**

> first language is not english. if i made any errors, please point them out!!
> 
> this was kind of short, i wanted to make it longer, maybe even multichaptered with like, josh's point of view being part of it? but i ran out if ideas idk.


End file.
